Donald Trump's judge attacks are a logical extension of his birtherism

President
Barack Obama speaks during the White House Correspondents'
Association annual dinner on April 30, 2016 at the Washington
Hilton hotel in Washington, DC.Olivier Douliery-Pool/Getty Images

Republicans who are surprised and vexed by Donald Trump's
racist attacks on US District Judge Gonzalo
Curiel — the federal judge who is allegedly too Mexican to
preside over Trump's fraud trial, despite being born in
Indiana — apparently were not paying attention during
the years Trump spent spreading rumors that President Barack
Obama had forged his birth certificate.

The attacks are fundamentally the same: In each
case, Trump is attacking an American-born official for
being insufficiently American on the grounds of his excessively
brown heritage.

I think the instinct of some Republican politicians is that
appeals to racism can only be cynical ploys to win over
Republican primary voters; if you're making a cynical ploy, you
stop doing it when it ceases to be useful.

But what if Trump just straight up believes this stuff? Why
would he stop saying it just because he is their nominee for
president?

This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of Business Insider.